Followup: Humane society responds to dog owner’s claims

The Kitsap Humane Society released a lengthy statement
Wednesday pertaining to Bremerton resident Doug Bolds’ allegations
about how his dog was handled when Bolds was arrested for DUI in
June 2010.

Here’s their release:

June 15, 2011 – Silverdale, WA – In 2010,
Kitsap Humane Society successfully reunited nearly 600 pets with
their owners. We prefer that all companion animals remain with
their original owner so long as the animal is well provided for. We
make every attempt to return animals to their owners, including
microchip scanning, lost and found audio report (available by
calling the shelter) and lost and found online report. We also hold
all stray animals for 96 hours before they are available for
adoption to give owners an opportunity to locate them at the
shelter and reclaim them. We follow these guidelines for a stray
animal or an animal of someone who has been arrested or
incarcerated.

In addition, for an incarcerated citizen, our standard operating
procedure is to fax an owner release form to the correctional
facility where the owner is being held. We then hold the animal for
five days to give them adequate time to make arrangements to pick
up their animal. We handle these types of situations on a weekly
basis. Unless the owner has been arrested on suspicion of animal
cruelty charges, we make every effort to reunite animals with their
owners.

According to Doug Bolds’ statements to the Kitsap Sun, he claims
Kitsap Humane Society adopted his dog out without giving him the
opportunity to reclaim it. There is ambiguity surrounding the
allegations made by Bolds as there are no microchip or license
records indicating he is the original owner of the dog, despite the
fact that pet licensing is required by law. Our records do indicate
the dog arrived at KHS on June 3, 2010 and was adopted 14 days
later. We have no records indicating that Bolds made any attempt to
contact KHS, either directly or through friends or family during
this time period, though the dog was in a kennel in a public area
of our shelter until it was adopted.

We do, however, have a record of a subsequent contact between
Bolds and one of our officers in January 2011. Bolds was a
bystander in an unrelated case. In the course of the investigation,
Bolds accused the officer of taking his dog in June (the officer
was not involved in the original case) and adopting it to someone
else the next day. Bolds told the officer that “the troopers” told
him KHS had adopted the dog out the day after it was impounded. The
officer told Bolds that KHS would not have done so; that the
shelter holds animals for a minimum of five days before adopting
them out. The officer gave Bolds Animal Welfare Director, Stacey
Price’s phone number and instructed him to call her. When Bolds
called Stacey, he was belligerent and verbally abusive before
hanging up on her, refusing to answer any of her questions. This
was the last interaction we had with Bolds.

Kitsap Humane Society has been serving the communities of Kitsap
County since 1908 and is an independent nonprofit, currently
providing Animal Control contract services to Kitsap County,
Bremerton, Bainbridge Island, Port Orchard, Poulsbo and Naval Base
Kitsap.

While I am a HUGE supporter of the humane society, at the end of the day, the dog belongs to Bolds. He sounds like an unrully angry fellow, but it is his family member and nothing will change that. Unless someone can prove he is beating his dog, I don’t care about the other details, it is his dog.

Let the dog decide – whoever he goes to gets him and I hope it isn’t the DUI fellow.
He cared so little about his dog (child) that he drove drunk with him in the car and didn’t arrange for his care while in jail.
I’ve got no use for drunks and their lack of responsible concern for those dependent on them.
Let the little guy stay with the new adopters…less drunk and angry.
Pets perform miracles for their people simply by loving them. How well can a drunk take care of a pet?